UTEP in the sweet 16? BYU in the elite 8? Baylor in the final four? fortune favors the bold … but does it favor the clueless?

i hate picking brackets because of what my brother and i call the UNC problem … North Carolina is always going to win (tho, not this year!) and it sucks to have to pick them.

so about five years ago i stopped.

this year, i’m back in … but taking a new tactic. i’m picking what i WANT to have happen, instead of what i THINK will happen.

georgetown goes to the elite 8 (civic pride). old dominion makes it out of the first round (loyalty to CAA basketball). pitt loses in the third round (living in DC/maryland, one develops a hatred of all things pittsburgh). villanova spontaneously combusts in the round of 32 (still bitter about the 1985 ncca final). duke doesn’t make the final four (sorry, collin).

there are limits, however.

obviously, i WANT kentucky to lose to texas (hook’em horns), but they won’t … and i WANT maryland to win the whole thing (grandfather born in college park, i lived in MD for a decade and never more than 12 miles off campus) but that’s just not going to happen (part of being a maryland fan is expecting them to choke).

so we’ll see how it goes. hopefully fortune favors the hopeful.